The SEC Says Hackers Made Millions Insider Trading By Simply Stealing Press Releases
Sometimes, the simplest plans are the smartest. And the most illegal.
That’s certainly the case with a group of accused criminals, including six American stock traders and two Ukrainian hackers, along with 23 other defendants—who stand accused of running a very, very lucrative scheme for almost five years, according to the AP.
The scam was simple: Hack into the unpublished databases of services that issue press releases for companies. Gather information about forthcoming announcements from companies, usually sales or profit announcements that could easily precipitate a rise or fall in stock prices. Then use that intelligence to anticipate what stocks should be bought (or sold), before the data goes public. Finally, profit. It’s an absurdly straightforward crime, and one that has remained unnoticed for a remarkably long time.
